Interview: Introducing CityInformation

Written by Sarah Ruzgar on

4th May 2016.

CityInformation enables users to catch up on local news and shop online all in one CityApp, saving both time and phone memory.

Share this

Is less really more? It is when you’re able to use one single app for many different tasks! CityInformation enables users to catch up on local news, shop online, buy movie and football tickets, order takeaway or book a table at their favourite restaurant, all in one CityApp, saving both time and phone memory.

Having recently joined the Awin network, we asked CityInformation’s Marketing Manager Wout Smits about their business model, booking trends and what opportunities they can offer advertisers.

Welcome to the Awin network! How does CityInformation’s business model work?

With our CityApps, advertisers are able to localize their marketing efforts by targeting consumers in specific geographical areas.

Alongside information about local shopping, we also provide our users with an online warehouse where they’re able to browse lots of different stores including Zalando and Asos. Therefore, our CityApps also add value to advertisers without physical ties to the city. Our all-in-one solution is targeted on both locals and tourists

Based on how our app is used, we can offer the most value to advertisers on a CPC payment model.

How do you generate traffic?

First of all, our partnerships with professional football clubs are important for our marketing strategy. Currently, we work with over 30 clubs including PSV Eindhoven, AZ Alkmaar, and MSV Duisburg. This cooperation is twofold. On the one hand, we integrate the clubs’ mobile websites in our apps, making it easier for the fans to read news, buy tickets or browse the fan store. The clubs, on the other hand, advertise our name during their matches and promote the use of the CityApp through their social media and newsletters.

Secondly, we have started several local marketing campaigns. In various cities in the Netherlands, for example, we advertise the CityApp on city buses. This allows us to increase the brand awareness of specific CityApps, parallel to the promotion of the general CityInformation brand on national radio and TV.

Thirdly, we invest in the development of our social media channels including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

These are, in short, some of the initiatives that will take the number of active users past 200,000 by the end of the year.

What can you offer advertisers who are interested in partnering with you?

We integrate the mobile websites of our partners into the respective categories of the CityApps, forwarding the CityApps’ traffic to the partner’s website without the user having to leave our app.

The CityApps provide a unique way to target consumer groups based on location and interests, creating an increasing, relevant scope for advertisers. The apps offer added value during the inspiration, orientation, and purchasing phase of the customer journey and help to increase brand awareness.

The CityApp is the link between our partners and the people in a city. The apps are widely used to localize our partners’ marketing campaigns and are especially effective for websites offering restaurant and hotel reservations, food delivery, as well as tourist and local activities.

What are the most interesting trends you’ve noticed from your user’s bookings?

The number of users continues to grow, providing our partners with more exposure every week. Because we enable large, (inter)national businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to very specific consumer groups, relatively high click-through rates and conversion percentages (3% on average) are being realized.

So far, we have seen that our CityApps are most frequently used on smartphones rather than other mobile devices. We notice a peak in clicks and sales between 4 and 8 pm, especially for restaurant reservations. On top of that, the average session duration is increasing, indicating that our users are spending more and more time exploring our apps and hence our partners’ mobile websites.

Are there any exciting plans in the pipeline for CityInformation that you’d like to share?

First of all, the number of CityApps is set to keep growing in the future, effectively meaning that there will be more than 1,000 apps by January 2017. Not only will this improve our coverage of cities in countries in which we are already active, it also means that we are expanding geographically to other European countries and continents like Asia and the America’s.

Secondly, we are diversifying our partnerships with sport clubs. Not only are we establishing partnerships with football clubs in new countries such as the UK, we’re also seeking cooperation with professional clubs in other sports, e.g. basketball, hockey, and ice hockey.

Thirdly, the product is continuously improved by the implementation of new features to improve user friendliness, e.g. a wider selection of languages and the possibility to switch to any other city without having to download another CityApp.

CityInformation has already partnered up with parties like PSVEindhoven, Rabobank, TripAdvisor, Trivago, Booking.com, The Fork, Zalando and Asos. However, we are open for partnerships with advertisers that are interested in promotion on our mobile platform!